A standard motor-vehicle door latch has a housing, a latching fork pivotal on the housing, and a release pawl engageable with the fork and pivotal on the housing between a latched position retaining the fork in a latched position engaged around a bolt and securing a motor-vehicle door closed and an unlatched position in which the fork can release the bolt and allow the door to open. Inside and outside actuating levers controlled by inside and outside door handles are pivotal on the housing between actuated and an unactuated positions. A coupling lever is pivotal between a coupling position connecting the actuating levers to the release pawl for actuation of the release pawl by the actuating levers and a decoupling position in which movement of the actuating levers into their actuated positions does not move the release pawl. Inside and outside locking levers are pivotal on the housing between locked and unlocked positions. A central-locking lever pivotal on the housing is connected by a coupling engaged to the inside locking lever for joint synchronous pivoting thereof. The coupling lever can be pivoted by the locking levers into the decoupling position to disconnect the actuating levers from the release pawl and, therefore, lock the latch.
The central-locking lever is typically controlled by a pin that moves along an orbit, traveling in one direction to lock the latch and another to unlock it. The outside locking lever is set up so that it can override the centrally locked position so that, if the vehicle loses power, the doors can still be opened. Normally this central-locking unit is operated by a central controller in turn operated by a remote control, typically with an infrared link, so that the vehicle can be unlocked simply by pressing a button on the remote. Such a lock is described in European patent document 0,267,423.
To date such latches are not provided with an antitheft feature, which is a setting in which the latch is locked and can only be unlocked by means of the outside locking lever. Thus in the antitheft position a would-be thief who breaks the window of the door cannot reach in and unlock the door. Instead it will remain locked even if the inside handle and/or door-lock button are manipulated.